Two Months On Substack! My Story So Far
Starting on Substack, Subscriber Growth, Getting Paid and Ten Tips for Newbies.
Reflections on Two Months on Substack
Hello! I’m Kate, a psychotherapist sharing weekly Letters from Therapy. If you enjoy my writing, make sure you’re subscribed. Improve your life and relationships and join me to nurture your soul, accept yourself and find deeper meaning, by upgrading to a paid subscription. You’ll get enriching discovery tools, worksheets and journaling, guided meditations in the podcast, the Heal Your Past Course and all posts. You’re invited!
Hi friends,
Have you ever felt a spark burn bright in your soul? Except you haven’t yet discovered how or where to set it free?
I started my Letters from Therapy Substack with ideas to nourish your soul, accept yourself and find deeper meaning at the start of 2024. 16 years of therapeutic work, and a life of love, loss and creativity has taken a new shape here.
Thoughts of tumble weed and the shame of failure bounced around my mind as I stared at the blank page on my laptop. Although, maybe I’d found a home for that spark? And maybe someone out there needs to read my words?
“Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.” Einstein
Starting on Substack in 2024
If you don’t know Substack, it is a platform to host a newsletter and blog, brimming with talented work. There’s a movement back to long form writing, rather than the quick dopamine fixes of social media. Yes please! Substack is full of writers and readers, curious, intelligent people searching for greater depth.
I had heard mixed reports about publishing here, so I dedicated a lot of time to understanding it and setting up my publication.
Exploring Substack is like discovering the gateway to the secret garden. Or perhaps it’s more like starting a new job without realising you applied!
I’m sharing this post with everything that has helped me in my first two months here.
Helpful Posts and People for Beginners
If you are a beginner, feel lost here though you’ve been here a while, or maybe you’re a curious reader, this post might help navigate your early days. These are the people and posts that got me started here.
wrote this post after her first month on Substack in December which I discovered through search. Elin is a prolific and playful writer who shared a a lot of her process writing here.I listened to
and who recorded a podcast last year discussing their journeys on Substack with all the light and shade.They mentioned generous
who shares buckets of advice for people starting on Substack.I found
who has built a large international community and plenty of brilliant advice too.My search also brought me to
’s popular post here with his reflections after three months on Substack, who a few months later has 1000+ subscribers and the coveted tick. He was my first recommender too, thank you Remy! interviewed in 2022 about Substack on her podcast which was my first real introduction to Substack. She shares lots of useful info here on her Substack Soiree publication too.I found useful resources for setting up my Substack publication at
, which took me some time, I won’t lie! Substack support and chat box are also very helpful.Community minded
shares her journey here each month on her Musings by Mika publication.My favourite post about growing on Substack if your not gaining traction is this hilarious post from
.And
shares her amusing take on her first three months here!
You might also like Setting Intentions To Reclaim Your Power, Taking The Road Less Travelled and Loving-Kindness for All Beings
Why I Chose Substack to Host my Newsletter
I used to love instagram, building a following of 11,000 from my jewellery business a few years back. My growth stopped there as the introduction of reels and other gimmicks drowned out my posts. I want to make jewellery and liked taking photos. I’m not an entertainer. I didn’t play the game, so only a handful of my followers would ever see my posts. There are many people leaving Instagram for Substack, including big names like
( who not works for Substack) and who wrote about it, as have several others.Substack enables writers to charge for their work, and make their money by taking a small cut. It shouldn’t be a revolution to pay creators for their work if it’s possible, so I love the ethos.
Other newsletter services are expensive, whereas Substack is free.
I love that my letters are stored as a beautiful magazine style blog, with everything in one place and zero extra work. So if you miss something, you’ll find it right there!
You also own your mailing list on Substack. The instagram followers who chose to follow me are now lost to me. I’m at the mercy of their unfathomable algorithm and even paying for boosting posts doesn’t reach them.
The best thing about Substack is the people. Clever, curious, creative people everywhere you look. I’ve already made some buddies, thanks to the communities below. Hello! 👋
My Subscriber Growth On Substack
I’m not an expert after two months, of course not, but I learned ALOT. I have grown from 170 imported subscribers to 454 subscribers today. That is more than I dreamed of, thank you for being here! I am even more grateful to my paying subscribers. It means so much and motivates me to continue my weekly+ post promise.
I have a free 7 day trial if you’d like to explore some of the exercises and journaling in the archive, or you’d like me to be able to keep going.
My new subscribers came mostly from Substack, maybe 30 or so from instagram. The graph dip in mid February is when I deleted 50 imported names who didn’t seem to be opening my emails. They signed up about a year ago and I didn’t like to bother them. Perhaps they were already fully self aware and enlightened, I don’t know. Sorry if I made a mistake, please re-subscribe!
You might also like this post about Setting Intentions, This one about Taking the Road Less Travelled or this Loving-Kindness Meditation.
Is Getting Paid On Substack Possible?
My heart dances when see a new paid subscriber. They value themselves and me in that exchange. Maybe you may want to invest in yourself? Read about what I offer in Letters from Therapy here, and take advantage of my 7 day free trial.
My writing income is about 49p per hour. 🤔 I want to add value to the world and take time on my posts. Though yes, I also hope more will upgrade as I go on. Maybe you’d like to support my work?
There are lots of posts about even greater financial success than mine here. Some earn £$ millions per year, like Letters from an American, and Lenny’s Newsletter does pretty well too.
and both share their financial success on here, though both came with large audiences as writer royalty.who helps new and existing substack writers recently shared this post on reaching £10,000! (well deserved Claire!) tells us she made $40k here as a top class writing tutor.Talented writer
who holds space for writing for better mental health just got her tick (100 paid subscribers) for What Now . is open about his financial stats for 2023, the good and the bad. Talks about the financial realities of Substack for her here. who is Too Old for This Shit knows prioritising our well-being is more important than money, fame or status so I will keep writing as it means so much to me.
You might also like Setting Intentions To Reclaim Your Power, Taking The Road Less Travelled and Loving-Kindness for All Beings
How to Start on Substack (What I Learned so Far)
Post regularly, or at least, consistently. People want to see that you’re committed and invested before they’ll join you. If it’s less frequent that’s fine too, as long as you are consistent. I post approximately once a week.
leads by example, has lots of advice and his publication How to Write for a Living is growing fast. Also has so much to share with authors and other writers in the Author Stack.Be generous. Says
from Sparkle on Substack. Share, like and comment on other peoples work. Be active, and join the conversation. People on substack are intelligent readers, and there’s a really strong community vibe on many publications, especially Claire’s.Keep it simple, stupid! Says
I know and love therapy and creative life, I will write therapy and creative life. I can commit to weeklyish writing with exercises for paid subscribers, so that’s what I’ll do. Simple! Dont write what you don’t enjoy.Write Your Best. Substack writing is high quality. I improve with help from:
All round expert
Phenomenal literary writing tutor
Generous
offers regular writing courses and support.The legendary
is here with Story Club.Join in on Notes. Notes is a newer part of Substack and is a little bit like social media, a space for sharing and community building. I made a few friends here now, and discovered some incredible writers with shared interests. Share others work here and someone might share yours.
Find Your Community. I have been blown away by the sense of community here on Substack. As well as the writers accounts I mention above, there’s
and her supportive community Sparkle on Substack, - Writers at Work is a friendly international community of Substackers. hosted office hours each week until recently and promise something else in its place. hosts writing groups, too, on Sundays. with Madeline is. a community for those living with Chronic Illness. is welcoming to all and has a post called Find Your Tribe . There are too many to list here. If you have a community let us know in the comments.Recommendations: I’m grateful to
for being my first recommender, which prevented me closing my laptop that first day. Thank you to my other recommenders since then: , , , , I am grateful!Set boundaries! Substack is huge and beautiful so know your limits. You can spend a lot of time here. Set boundaries for yourself.
and all write about their burnout, though not all through Substack. We all want to write well, and attract subscribers, and explore here. I have a daughter, a dog, an home and jewellery business to balance, not to mention Long Covid and peri-menopause in the mix.Celebrate your wins. What are you proud of? I’m proud I have kept up my posting schedule, and that my writing is improving and that you are reading! I’m proud that many people now pay for my writing. (Thank you again!)
Enjoy! There is so much here to discover. Friends, sharing, inspiration, heart wrenching writing. Explore and enjoy.
I intend to show up with my weekly ish posts, do all this, enjoy, and see where it takes me.
If you started a Substack, how were your first two months and do you have any tips? Or do you have plans to write here and have a question?
If you wrote a post about your early days here please tell us about it, and let us know if you have a community too.
Spill the beans in the comments! Or please press the heart and share so others can find this too.
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Thank you for sharing these insights, these are great tips! My goal for this year is definitely consistency in posting, but at the same time I think about the tricky balance of not "being" on Substack all the time. I try to post weekly-ish and I genuinely love engaging in conversations with others on the platform, but it's usually only 2-3 days a week, otherwise I tend to feel a little overwhelmed. But I suppose we all grow at our own rates, doing the work and showing up is the most important part.
So complete !
thank you. I started substack too in 2024, and left instagram. The best decision i made this new year.